Alligator

by Lisa Moore

This is a complex jigsaw of interlocking life stories. Various disparate characters impact on each other's lives with shocking and unexpected results. Each page is crammed with sharp insight and subtle revelation of character through events, leading to an inevitable climax of worlds colliding. If you want good writing with beautifully observed characterisation, this book is for you.

Extract

Beverly thinks suddenly of the rooster eggcup that had once belonged to her grandmother. As a toddler, Colleen had hurled the eggcup at the fridge and cracked off the rooster's head. Beverly had been inconsolable. An instant, jagged disappointment entirely out of proportion had ripped through her as she watched the china head dance over the kitchen tiles. The broken eggcup had brought her to an understanding: being a mother was an entrapment.